This is a modal window.
No compatible source was found for this media.
As global climate change produces more extreme and unpredictable weather, water scarcity is a looming threat for many nations.
Australia’s state and federal governments have poured $430m dollars of emergency aid into NSW, which accounts for around a quarter of the country’s agricultural output, the BBC reported.
It’s just depressing.” More than half of Queensland is also in drought, as are parts of Victoria and South Australia states.
A shortage of feed is forcing farmers to sell their livestock, or risk them starving.
The dry weather is expected to continue over the coming months.
This weekend, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia had become “a land of drought.” Though drought is caused by a variety of factors, climate change can affect a variety of these factors.
In June, Turnbull said, “I don’t know many people in rural New South Wales that… don’t think the climate is getting drier and rainfall is becoming more volatile.” Much of the world has experienced extreme weather this year, such as heat waves, forest fires, drought and flooding.
Much of Europe and North America is currently battling through an unseasonably warm summer, which has produced record temperatures and rampant forest fires.